If you sat and watched five minutes of one of Della Taylor’s matches, her play might not leave an indelible impression. She doesn’t yelp or scream, boast or brag. She doesn’t possess a blistering serve or an overbearing forehand just yet.

After all, she is just a sophomore. A sophomore who just happens to be 44-0.

A mark like that at this point in the season is hard to come by and even harder to overlook, but Redondo’s top singles player has seemingly done both.

Maybe it’s because she has yet to develop a jaw-dropping power swing or that head-turning type of net play. Maybe it’s because she’s not winning matches for one of the Bay League’s Big Three. That doesn’t change the fact that she’s beaten the best Palos Verdes, Mira Costa and Peninsula have to offer.

This season, Taylor doubled up Palos Verdes’ Brooke Schweyer (6-3) and cruised to a 6-1 victory over Mira Costa’s Krystal Langley. Last season, Taylor beat SCTA tournament travel partner Kathryn Webb of Palos Verdes. She even edged Daily Breeze Player of the Year Rika Tatsuno of Peninsula.

“You have to play a pretty perfect match against Rika and she did,” Redondo coach Jim Ball said. “Before that, I couldn’t tell just how good she was. It was after that match when I realized that she was something special.

“To beat a player of her caliber, that’s a pretty fantastic achievement for a freshman.”

Such praise isn’t overblown or unfounded. In a coaching career that dates back to 1967 and spans more than 35 seasons, Ball has seen nearly every tennis prospect to come out of the area in the last 40 years.

“She’s quickly becoming the best player I’ve had,” Ball said. “I think the potential of where she’ll go is pretty much unlimited.”

The 15-year-old is currently seeded 26th in the SCTA 16-and-under division. In the last calendar year, she’s won two USTA amateur events and reached the finals of two others. So then why play for Bay League fourth-fiddle Redondo?

“I’ve lived in Redondo my whole life. I could have gone to another high school, but I wanted to play for my city,” Taylor said. “When I joined Redondo, I knew that its team had good players and that it just needed a boost. I knew Redondo could be right there with the other schools.”

While Taylor has yet to lead Redondo to a team win over a top-flight opponent, she and her sister, Elle, who holds down the team’s No. 2 singles spot, have been successful in closing what used to be a daunting distance between Redondo and the Bay League’s top brass.

“High school tennis is a team sport played by individuals,” Ball said. “If Della wins all of her sets, we get three points and still lose the match. The players (who) want to play at Redondo have to make the other players better. Della bought into that right away.”

One way Taylor has helped elevate the squad, aside from the W’s next to her name on the score sheet, has been by taking part in two-on-one drills with the school’s doubles teams.

“It really helps my doubles team to get better because just about every ball they hit comes back,” Ball said. “If my doubles players want to get better and contend with the Peninsulas and PVs, they need to get used to playing against players like Della, and she’s always willing to do that.”

Her willingness to better others on the team has not come at the expense of her own ambitions to preserve her unblemished record and cement herself as the best player in the area’s best league.

Thursday’s 2:30 p.m. match at Palos Verdes could go along way to doing just that as could her potential matchup Monday with USTA national No. 7 Taylor Gibbs of Mira Costa.

“Going into matches like that doesn’t intimidate me,” Taylor said “I know that if I just play my game, it’ll be a good match. Everyone’s beatable.”

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